Origin hypotheses of the Croats
The Croats trace their origins to a southwards migration of some of the Early Slavs in the 6th- and 7th-centuries CE, a tradition supported by anthropological, genetic, and ethnological studies.
[14] Similarly, Thomas the Archdeacon in his work Historia Salonitana mentions that seven or eight tribes of nobles, which he called "Lingones", arrived from Poland and settled in Croatia under Totila's leadership.
[15][16] As such, the origin of the early Croats before and at the time of arrival to the present day Croatia, as well as their ethnonym, were an eternal topic of historiography, linguistics and archaeology.
[19] With the development of Croatian historiography since the 17th century was elaborated in realistic terms, and considered Croats as one of the Slavic groups which settled in their modern-day homeland during the migration period.
[22][14] In the late 19th century, the most significant impact on the future historiography had Franjo Rački, and the intellectual and political circle around Josip Juraj Strossmayer.
[20] Rački's view of the unified arrival of the Croats and Serbs to the "partially empty house",[23] fit the ideological Yugoslavism and Pan-Slavism.
[29] There were Yugoslavian scholars like Ferdo Šišić and Nada Klaić who allowed limited non-Slavic origin of certain elements in Croatian ethnogenesis, but they were usually connected with the Pannonian Avars and Bulgars.
[31][32] According to extensive folklore and other studies by Radoslav Katičić the Slavdom of the Croats is unquestionable, as well survival of some autochthonous elements, while the Iranian origin of their ethnonym is the least unlikely.
[33] With this conclusion also agreed other scholars like Ivo Goldstein,[34][35] and John Van Antwerp Fine Jr.[36] Autochthonous-Slavic theory dates back to the Croatian Renaissance, when was supported by Vinko Pribojević and Juraj Šižgorić.
[14] It developed among the Dalmatian humanists,[19] and was also considered by early modern writers, like Matija Petar Katančić, Mavro Orbini and Pavao Ritter Vitezović.
[19] According to the autochthonous model, the Slavs homeland was in the area of former Yugoslavia, and they spread northwards and westwards rather than the other way round,[37] which is "completely untenable".
[43] Also, Milošević's consideration about Scandinavian origin of the K-type swords is controversial because is contrasting mainstream opinion considering them as characteristically of Frankish workshops.
[62][63] Most recently the late 1990s "post-structuralist" theory of Slavic elite cultural model was created by Florin Curta, and later supported by Danijel Dzino and Francesco Borri.
[71][72] Also, in the Thomas the Archdeacon's work the starting emphasis is on the decadence of people from Salona, and as such scholars consider the emergence of newcomers Goths/Croats was actually seen as a kind of God's scourge for sinful Romans.
[73][72] Scholars like Ludwig Gumplowicz and Kerubin Šegvić literally read the medieval works and considered Croats as Goths who were eventually Slavicized, and that the ruling caste was formed from the foreign warrior element.
[75] The ethnonym Hrvat was derived from the Germanic-Gothic Hrôthgutans, the hrōþ (victory, glory) and gutans (common historical name for the Goths).
[82] In the same year, independently Fran Ramovš, with reference to the Iranian interpretation of the name Horoathos by Max Vasmer, concluded that the early Croats were one of the Sarmatian tribes which during the great migration advanced along the outer edge of Carpathians (Galicia) to the Vistula and Elbe rivers.
[89] The thesis was subsequently supported by Francis Dvornik, George Vernadsky, Roman Jakobson, Tadeusz Sulimirski, and Oleg Trubachyov.
[97] Another known more radical thesis, Iranian-Persian, of the Iranian theory was by Stjepan Krizin Sakač, who although gave insights on some issues, tried to follow the Croatian ethnonym as far the region Arachosia (Harahvaiti, Harauvatiš) and its people (Harahuvatiya) of the Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BC).
[14][103] This is further substantiated by the fact that this story is very similar to other adaptations of Herodotus (IV 33.3) "the Croatian migration did not take place, but ... Constantine Porphyrogenitus created it relying on the literary models traditionally applied to described the Landnahme of Scythian Barbarians.
[118][119] He initially shared the Bury's opinion on the Kubrat's and Chrobatos' name and legends, and the mention of two sisters interpreted as additional elements which joined the alliance "by the maternal line", and noted that the symbolism of the number seven is often encountered in the steppe peoples.
[120] Margetić, rejecting his late-migration theory, instead argued that the Croats were one of Bulgarian tribes and leading social class which were named in honor of Kubrat's victory over Avars.
In the upcoming historical events and interactions in the region of Dalmatia finished the formation of the Croatian ethnic identity and ethno-political group of people, initially held and promoted by a heterogenous political and military elite of the same name.
The results indicate that the nucleus of the early Croat state in Dalmatia was of Slavic ancestry, which arrived from the area somewhere in Lesser Poland probably along the direct route Nitra (Slovakia)-Zalaszabar (Hungary)-Nin, Croatia, and gradually expanded into the continental hinterland of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the 10th century, however, by the end of the 11th century did not in continental Northern and Eastern Croatia where were distinguished from Bijelo Brdo cultural cluster.
[139] According to the 2015 NASU study, medieval burial grounds in Zelenche of Ternopil Oblast and in Halych region in Western Ukraine have "anthropological peculiarities" because of which are different from the near sites of Early Slavic tribes of Volhynians, Tivertsi and Drevlians, and closest "to several distant [medieval] populations of the part of the Western and Southern Slavs (Czechs, Lusatian Slavs, Moravians, and the Croatians).
[140] The anthropological and craniometric data is in correlation with the historical sources, including an account from DAI that a part of the Dalmatian Croats split off and took rule of Pannonia and Illyricum, as well other archaeological findings which imply that early Croats did not initially settle in Lower Pannonia and that the splitting off was related to the political rule rather than ethnic origin.
[142][143] The distribution, variance and frequency of the I2 and R1a subclades (>65%) among Croats are related to the medieval Slavic expansion, probably from the territory of present day Ukraine and Southeastern Poland.
[150] Based on autosomal IBD survey the speakers of Serbo-Croatian language share a very high number of common ancestors dated to the migration period approximately 1,500 years ago with Poland and Romania-Bulgaria clusters among others in Eastern Europe.
